And Bodie Makes Four
by Fiorenza-a
Summary: The big day; a gift in lieu of a comment on 'And Then There Were Three' by Sylvie Orp...[/s/11350874/1/And-Then-There-Were-Three]...so this makes much more sense, if you read that first :0)


Bodie grinned, looking at the registrar with an infectious irreverence ill placed in a best man. The registrar reacted, as women had been reacting to that grin ever since he'd started school and tried it on someone who hadn't been a relative, or a gossiping companion of his mother's; returning the smirk with a genteel version of her own, suppressed by both the weight of her years and the authority of her office, and raising an indulgently admonishing eyebrow.

Beside him, his partner's nervous tremor was threatening to start Doyle's teeth chattering. ''You about to buckle on me, Doyle?''

Doyle shook his head and gulped nervously ''No, but I'd rather be facing another nuclear bomb.''

''She's'' began Bodie and then corrected himself hurriedly, in deference to his partner's current prejudice about pronouns ''Ruth'' he emphasised '''s not bad for the marrying kind, you've had worse, at least this one didn't drive off and leave you standing like a lemon in the car park.''

Flushed with outrage, Doyle turned to snap at his partner's crassly inappropriate jibe and then suddenly grinned instead as he realised that the anger had driven out the nerves ''You...'' he hissed ''Bodie, that's not funny.''

''Worked though, didn't it sunshine?'' grinned Bodie unrepentantly, winking at the registrar conspiratorially, inviting approval for his unorthodox technique.

Next to him, Doyle shuffled uncomfortably and then offered with quiet honesty ''Never been so nervous, I'm glad you're here mate, wouldn't have wanted to do it without you.''

For once in his life Bodie looked truly at a loss for words, but then he wrapped a powerful arm around Doyle's shoulders, squeezed until it was almost painful and muttered hoarsely ''Wild horses, mate.''

Doyle was about to respond when a commotion behind them announced the arrival of the bride.

The ceremony was short and solemn, Bodie pulling from nowhere a miraculous, seemly gravitas to fulfil in public the role few but Doyle suspected in private, the very best of men.

Ruth shone with happiness, although Doyle knew later there would be tears, as the new family stopped to place Ruth's bouquet on Dougie's grave before setting off on their honeymoon. Grace was spending the holiday with Dougie's parents and they planned to drop her off on the way. The little girl had been bewitched by her role as bridesmaid, and stopped whenever she saw any portion of her reflection to courtesy to herself and giggle. Doyle's happiness was written on his face, surrounded as he was by the family into which he'd been born and the family he had been lucky enough to find.

As the wedding party left the unassumingly dingy registry office, disquietingly reminiscent of CI5 HQ, complete with surreally benign Controller, Bodie pulled Doyle to one side.

Doyle grinned impishly at him and said ''If you're about to give me a lecture on the birds and the bees, you're about twenty years too late.''

Bodie grinned back ''True Doyle, but it's one thing knowing how to kick a ball, it's another knowing enough to get to Wembley. Little matter of skill, my old son.''

''Oh, and you reckon you have a few things you could teach me?'' challenged Doyle with happy belligerence.

The grin unexpectedly dropped from Bodie's face and he replied with heartbreaking sincerity ''No Ray, I don't think I do. I think you might have got this one just about right.''

Already emotional, Doyle was overcome, flinging his arms about Bodie and hugging him tightly ''You know the best of it, you stupid great berk?'' he growled softly into Bodie's ear ''It's barely a year since I thought I'd lost you, that I was going to be stuck on my own, that the two of us was about to be the one of us.''

Doyle pulled away to look into Bodie's startled blue orbs and produced a slightly wobbly grin of apology ''Sorry mate, but one minute I'm strung out, sitting in that hospital, not knowing if you'd wake up at all, let alone, if you did, whether there'd be anything going on in that pea sized brain of yours, and then, the next...'' Doyle reached a hand to brush his fingers against Bodie's astonished face, much as Cowley had once done in response to a Bodie this dazed and vulnerable ''...and then...'' Doyle hiccoughed and shook his head in disdain for his own idiocy, breaking the intensity of the moment and trying again ''...and then...''

Bodie's face relaxed into a warm smile and he took Doyle gently by the shoulders, turning him into the milling throng gathered about his newly wedded bride. Ruth raised her head, the love in her eyes echoing that held in her husband's tender gaze ''And then...'' whispered Bodie happily into Doyle's habitually unruly curls ''...and then there were three.''


End file.
